OpenAI employee busted collecting 'superintelligence' technology

An engineer at OpenAI has been charged with secretly installing a recording device inside a conference room in what officials have said was an effort to capture sensitive conversations about the company's technology.

The employee, identified as a 35-year-old Saudi national named Abdulrahman Alfozan, was arrested a week after the ChatGPT maker discovered the device.

The US Department of Justice released a statement on Tuesday, local time, detailing the complaint lodged by OpenAI after the discovery. 

In it, FBI director Kash Patel said Mr Alfozan "allegedly concealed a covert recording device inside his employer's executive conference room to secretly capture sensitive communications about the company's super intelligence technology."

The complaint did not identify the company, but OpenAI later confirmed in a statement on X that a "sophisticated recording device" was uncovered in one of their offices.

"We used our models to understand the device and where it had come from, identifying that a specific employee had planted it a few days earlier," the statement read.

"We referred the matter to the FBI, and we’re grateful to the agents and prosecutors who moved quickly to make an arrest."

Mr Alfozan, who had been working at OpenAI since July 25, was fired shortly after, the department said.

The department said the complaint made by the company did not detail what Mr Alfozan might have wanted to do with any captured communications.

Mr Alfozan faces a charge of using or endeavouring to use an electronic, mechanical, or other device to intercept oral communications. 

He made his first court appearance on Tuesday, local time, and it was not immediately clear if he had a lawyer who could speak on his behalf.

The recording device was found on September 30 concealed in toilet paper and inserted into a USB port on the back of a television in the conference room, according to the complaint.

Though the conference room where the recording device was found did not have a camera at the time it was installed, closed-circuit television footage inside the company's offices revealed that Mr Alfozan was near the conference room on half a dozen occasions last month despite not having any authority to access the space, the complaint said.

The company subsequently added a camera to the room, capturing Mr Alfozan entering and checking behind the television where the recording device was installed, according to the FBI.

The complaint also said he used a productivity tool to make multiple inquiries about the company's building addresses, meeting rooms, meeting-room capacities and calendars.

Before his arrest last week, the complaint said Mr Alfozan left an unattended bag in a different room in the building that included his wallet, identification and another recording device.